Despatch from Kaalann

[ggreig]

I played the first instalment of the Doctor Who interactive episode/game yesterday evening, and I did finish it, although it took pretty much the whole evening.

As a game, it’s very linear, as you’re led from one situation to another, but as an interactive episode this is not really a problem. With both titles and scrolling credits at the end, the feel was very much of being immersed in an episode.

The gameplay consists of exploring, sneaking past dangerous situations and solving puzzles. Some manual dexterity is required. The puzzles won’t keep you up at night trying to solve them, but they may be frustrating for the very young. The BBC recommend the game for those of 8 or above.

Both the Doctor and Amy can die, at which point game over, but the save points are frequent and you won’t lose any significant progress.

As I’m not a game whiz, if I can get through it in a (long) evening, it’s not too challenging; but it was certainly enough to keep me interested and engaged.

If you’ve downloaded it early, it might be worth re-downloading after Saturday’s rush is over, as the version available now is apparently a few tweaks short of being Saturday’s official release.